Organized labor is taking full advantage of changes in campaign finance laws, according to this story, reported from Cleveland, by The Wall Street Journal.“On a recent morning here (in Cleveland), union member Robert Robinson knocked on the door of nonunion insurance agent Ben Rodriguez, hoping to secure another vote for President Barack Obama's re-election,” The Journal's story begins. “Two years ago, such a visit by a union representative could have been illegal.”What's different? Mostly, the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, which allowed unions, for the first time, to knock on doors and make phone calls to prospective voters who aren't their members.“The shift has significantly widened the pool of voter targets for labor, a major ally of Democrats that spends heavily on elections,” The Journal says. “Much attention on the Citizens United decision has focused on how it allows corporations unlimited spending on election activity as long as it isn't directly tied to a campaign, which is generally thought to help Republicans. But the ruling also handed unions that and other powerful new tools, including more freedom in how they spend members' dues.”It can have a huge impact in Ohio, where the AFL-CIO, a federation of 56 unions, “plans to target 800,000 more people than in 2008, when it reached out to about 1.2 million union members and affiliates,” according to the newspaper.Instead of spending heavily on television ads, “the federation is focusing on getting thousands of volunteers to tap friends through social media, by phone and in person,” The Journal says. A new tool lets volunteers who email their Facebook friends about the election earn points that they can then steer toward campaign-spending activities by the federation's PAC, called Workers' Voice.Republican Mitt Romney's campaign can't count on organized labor's support, but it has opened 35 field offices in Ohio “and, on one recent Saturday, had more than 4,000 people making calls and knocking on doors, said Scott Jennings, the campaign's Ohio state director,” The Journal reports.Bull run for banks
Bloomberg reports that as third-quarter earnings season begins, “the companies analysts are most bullish about are the ones whose stock prices are farthest below their highs — banks,” including KeyCorp.“While financial institutions in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 24 percent in 2012 for the biggest rally in nine years, they remain 58 percent below the record of February 2007,” Bloomberg notes. Signs of a housing recovery “prompted Wall Street firms to raise estimates for profit growth to 21 percent for the third quarter and 32 percent in the fourth, the most of 10 S&P 500 industries.”Bulls say banks “will continue to rally as Federal Reserve stimulus boosts earnings and helps companies from BB&T Corp. to KeyCorp and Wells Fargo & Co. rebound from the 84 percent drop during the financial crisis,” according to the news service. Bears say gains “will be limited to traditional lenders and increased regulation will drag down firms that depend on trading and underwriting for revenue.”Digital's tough on print (we know all about that)
Greeting card giants Hallmark and American Greetings are feeling the pressure of social media.“Once a staple of birthdays and holidays, paper greeting cards are fewer and farther between — now seen as something special, instead of something that's required,” the Associated Press reports.The cultural shift “is a worrisome challenge for the nation's top card maker, Hallmark Cards Inc., which last week announced it will close a Kansas plant that made one-third of its greeting cards.” Kansas City-based Hallmark plans to shed 300 jobs.In the past decade, the AP notes, “the number of greeting cards sold in the U.S. has dropped from 6 billion to 5 billion annually, by Hallmark's estimates,” as people use Facebook, Twitter and other social networks to send greetings to friends, family and loves ones.While Hallmark “says it's committed to the paper greeting card, it has made changes over the years,” according to the AP. “It has an iPhone app, for example, that lets people buy and mail cards from their phones. It also partnered with online card service Shutterfly to share designs that consumers can use to build specialized cards online.”American Greetings has been aggressive on the digital front. It “actually went from trimming costs and jobs amid the recession to announcing in August that it's adding 125 workers to an Osceola, Ark., plant. It's part of an expansion that will allow customers to design their own cards — online, of course,” the story notes.On this they agree
Last week's presidential debate had a clear winner — the Cleveland Clinic.Forbes.com notes that the Clinic, mentioned favorably by President Barack Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney, took out ads in today's Wall Street Journal and Sunday's New York Times to tout the bipartisan endorsement of its methods and services.The tagline was simple: “No Debate. Both Candidates Agree.”About Cleveland Clinic, the ad quoted President Obama from the debate: “One of the best health care systems in the world.”And it quoted Gov. Romney as saying, “Able to be more effective in bringing down the cost.”